Crude Oil futures hit the 200-day moving average 3 days ago (green line) and have bounced from their deeply oversold condition. The key to determine if the long-term uptrend is still in tact or if 2005 brings continued moderating crude prices will be how the commodity fairs with its recent broken overhead resistance zone (red lines) near $ 45.00. If it fails on this bounce to overtake that level and gets turned away again then we would say crude will continue to trade lower, our bet is it will fail and continue to moderate in 2005.

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